hotfoot

American  

[hot-foot] / ˈhɒtˌfʊt /

noun

hotfoots plural

1. a practical joke in which a match, inserted surreptitiously between the sole and upper of the victim's shoe, is lighted and allowed to burn down.

---

verb (used without object)

1. Informal. to go in great haste; walk or run hurriedly or rapidly (often followed byit ).

   to hotfoot it to the bus stop.

adverb

1. with great speed in going; in haste.

hotfoot British  

/ ˈhɒtˌfʊt /

adverb

1. with all possible speed; quickly

---

verb

1. to move quickly

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• hotfoots
  plural

Etymology

Origin of hotfoot

1250–1300; Middle English hot fot (adv.). See hot, foot

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

hotfoot hotfoots

I decided to take time off work the very next day and hotfoot it to Tel Aviv, to get ahead of any competitors.

From The New Yorker ● Jan. 7, 2019

So, what say you and me hotfoot it to the airport and get on to that plane.

From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2018

He has come hotfoot from his new home in Sunningdale, Berkshire, where he has moved with his wife, a French artist, to be closer to Gracie, his 11-year-old daughter with his former partner, Anna Friel.

From The Guardian ● May 29, 2017

One measly hotfoot, and you are out on your butt.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 23, 2015

“I gave him a little bit of a hotfoot, that’s all.”

From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss

A University of Chicago dropout, she hotfoots it to New York on the strength of a Greyhound hookup.

From New York Times ● Jun. 11, 2021

As this year's series of Strictly Come Dancing hotfoots its way towards crowning its winner, reigning champ Joe McFadden professes to not feeling too glum about giving up the glitterball.

From BBC ● Nov. 12, 2018

Said Sam Rosenberg: "We like to think we got all our business hotfoots when we were young."

From Time Magazine Archive

Other Berlin hotfoots: reports that "fat City men" hustle through London's financial district with steel helmets concealed under toppers; that English women are adopting a new helmet hairdo.

From Time Magazine Archive

And get this: hotfoot becomes hotfoots, and still life becomes still lifes.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner